Board of F3 blasts FIA and demands action

In a open letter the Board of the Formula 3 Association slams the FIA and says the jump between F4 and F4 is now too large after the recent series of incidents

The Board of the Formula 3 Association has released an open letter in which it gives a damning verdict on the current incidents seen in the FIA European Formula 3 championship and demands the sport's governing body to take action.

Formel 3 Vereinigung e.V, which ran the German Formula 3 championship before it folded in 2014 as Euro F3 took its place, has launched a scathing attack on the series and feels there is too much of a jump between Formula 4 and the Euro F3 series.

The comments were sparked by incidents witnessed at the last two rounds of the championship at Monza and Spa which saw multiple high speed crashes some of which sent cars and drivers airbourne and fortunate not to sustain serious injury.

The Euro F3 race officials have attempted to tame the aggression shown on track by giving strict driver debriefs and enforcing race bans on drivers who have continued to be wreckless. Despite the action taken German representatives in F3 are demanding more needs to be done.

"No reasonable person will doubt that many drivers contesting the Formula 3 European Championship have been completely out of their depth," the open letter from the Formula 3 Association read. "Big grids and an enormous amount of pressure to perform add to the problem.

"In the past two years the FIA did everything in their power in order to tighten the restrictions on national Formula 3 series, which made it impossible to organise a national racing series any longer.

"The scary incidents at Monza and Spa with cars overturning clearly show and are a terrifying proof that the direct switch from a national Formula 4 series to the Formula 3 European Championship is not working out as planned. The young drivers are lacking both the respect for their competitors and the fear of crashing.

"It is only due to the high safety standard in Formula 3 that there have been no major injuries so far. Do those responsible intend to wait until this happens that a driver is no longer able to get out of their car after crashing?"

The representatives have called for the FIA to take action by making it mandatory for all young drivers to spend a year competing in a national level F3 series before moving on to European or international competition.

"The FIA should finally show courage and close the obvious gap in terms of drivers' skills between Formula 4 and the Formula 3 European Championship in a reasonable manner and with a focus on safety," it explained. "Instead of obstructing the national Formula 3 series issue a mandatory requirement for all drivers advancing from Formula 4 to contest a national, FIA regulated Formula 3 series for a year of learning before moving up into the Formula 3 European Championship."